Page 4 : A week of Typhoon... literally.

You may not always end up where you thought you were going, but you will always end up where you were meant to be.

I thought this week I would be focusing on continuing my observation activity and finally starting my demos. However, this week's main activities only lasted for two days, Monday and Tuesday, because all of the classes from Wednesday until Friday are suspended due to bad weather caused by Typhoon Kristine in Manila. However, I see no problem with it! We still managed to make it fun... with a little bit of fear since it’s our first time experiencing a typhoon, hehe.

On October 21st, 2024, I observed 10-Newton and 10-Descartes during mathematics classes. For 10-Newton, the class started with Mr. Banigon distributing the certificates of exemplary academic performance for the first quarter of the school year 2024 - 2025. After distributing the certificates, Mr. Banigon finally introduced the lesson about finding the zeros of P(x) in factored form and writing P(x) given the zeros, the same lesson given to 10-Descartes. Throughout the lesson, there were numerous Q&A interactions between Mr. Banigon and the students.

At the end of those two classes, Mr. Banigon informed me that he wouldn't be available the next day and assigned me to administer activities that he prepared for both the mathematics and statistics classes. Not only that, the other student teacher that assigned to Mr. Banigon, Analie, mentioned she would also be absent due to her university classes. Knowing this, I felt super nervous because it would be my first time taking over the class on my own. However, I focused on staying calm and preparing myself to administer the activities for the next day.

Finally, October 22nd, 2024, arrived. I came to the Mathematics Department office earlier than usual to prepare myself both physically and mentally to administer the activities for mathematics classes in the morning and the statistics classes in the afternoon.

At 8:25 a.m., I went to our classroom, No. 346, ready to handle my first section of the day, 10-Newton. At 8:30 a.m., once all the students had entered, I introduced myself again and did a brief review of the last lesson before assigning them their activity. I gave some instructions, such as ‘please write your answers on a piece of paper’ and ‘please submit the activity by the end of class.’

By 9:15 a.m., the students were still completing their work, so the next section, 10-Descartes, started a bit late. At 9:20 a.m., all the students from 10-Descartes had settled in, and I did the same approach as with 10-Newton. I was nervous with my first section, 10-Newton, but I felt more at ease with the second, 10-Descartes. Just like the saying goes, ‘The more you practice, the easier it becomes; with each repetition, confidence grows.’

Here is the mathematics activity given to both sections:

Section 10-Newton:

Section 10-Descartes:

From my point of view (hehe):

After both sections were finished, I collected the works and placed them on top of Mr. Banigon's table. By that, I informed Mr. Banigon that I had finished administering the activity for the mathematics classes that day.

At 12.30 p.m., I was supposed to take over the statistics classes as well. But, there was a sudden announcement about class suspensions due to bad weather caused by Typhoon Kristine. As a result, the statistics classes were automatically canceled, and I went home earlier than expected.

The class suspensions lasted from Tuesday afternoon, October 22nd, 2024, until Friday, October 25th, 2024.

Since there was a typhoon, the six of us couldn't go anywhere, so we just stayed at our hostel. If you think it would be boring, no, it wasn't. We always have this routine of cooking, eating, and washing dishes together. During these activities, we'd chat and joke around together. Oh, how I am going to miss this moment. It might sound scripted (LOL), but it is not! T_T

Fun fact! I never really liked seblak before, but now I really do. It’s my favorite dish we’ve made here so far!

 

About experiencing the typhoon, I felt scared, but I was also sooo interested to see how the typhoon was actually like. So, most of the time, other than doing my tasks (either assignments from UNSRI or lesson plan for my demos here), all I was doing was just looking at the tree from the window, watching how it swayed and observing whether it was raining yet or not (LOL). It was windy and rainy all at once, and it went to its peak at night. My roomate here, Salsa, and I were soooo scared, because there was also a lot of loud thunderstorms. However, of course, we're still fine today, hehe.

Here is the picture of me looking at the trees taken by Salsa (HAHA):

On October 25th, 2024, we decided to walk to Chinatown in Manila. It was afternoon, and the typhoon had calmed down. It was so much fun to explore Manila on our own. We took a bunch of cute photos and videos! 

Alriiiight, so that was my third-ish week in Manila, Philippines, filled with many unpredictable things! It was nerve-wracking, but that’s what made it more fun! I can't wait to finally finish my demos. I'll give you updates after I have my official demos, with a specific post for each demo for sure! See you soon! <3